[Bangla Daily Star] The Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) is set to try around 4,000 soldiers on charge of the February 25-26 mutiny from late November or early December.A three-member court led by BDR Director General Maj Gen M Mainul Islam will sit in Dhaka and 40 other places across the country to conduct the much talked-about trial.
A highly-placed source says the paramilitary force will constitute the court next month by incorporating two BDR officers each from Lt Col and Major rank.
The BDR highest court is empowered by its laws to try those who are accused only of mutiny and committing some small offences. This implies that some accused mutineers need to be tried at the Speedy Trial Tribunal under the penal code for heinous offences like killing, looting and arson during the carnage at Pilkhana Headquarters.
Speaking anonymously, a BDR top official says this is the first-ever instance in the history of the border guards that the trial of such a magnitude will be held under both the BDR and civil laws.
Insiders say among the BDR barracks elsewhere in the country the authorities have identified 40 places of occurrence where the three-member court will conduct trial one by one.
"There is no timeframe to complete the trial, but definitely we would try to do justice as quickly as possible ensuring every right of the accused," says the BDR top official. It's going to be an "open trial" and to ensure its transparency and accountability the people concerned would be allowed to observe the court proceedings, the official adds.
As the court would deal with a large number of accused, it is almost impossible to forecast how long it will take to dispose the cases, continues the BDR official involved in the trial.
So far 1,700 BDR personnel have been arrested in different stations outside Dhaka and another 2,000 have been arrested in Pilkhana HQ for their alleged involvement in the bloody mutiny.
But the total number of the accused would be finalised after all the 'courts of inquiry', which have been formed to investigate the offences, submit their reports.
The number of accused may even cross four thousand and it may take a few years to complete the trial, sources say.
Referring to the BDR Act, a source says besides the three members' composition of the BDR court there will be a law officer from the government to "assist or advise" the court.
The BDR authorities have already sent a letter to the government to appoint a law officer through the Attorney General's Office in this regard, says the source.
The court is likely to start functioning from mid-October if the government gives an early appointment of the law officer, the source adds.